Mike Leigh - latest news.

Latest - July 2008. Mike Leigh's most recent film Happy-Go-Lucky, will receive its UK DVD release on 18th August 2008. The fact that Happy-Go-Lucky slipped most people by at its very limited cinematic run is quite dissapointing given that it was his first film since the hugely successful Vera Drake. Disapointing but maybe not that surprising given that the film is a very different film to Vera Drake, and its appeal is perhaps not as broad as Vera Drake. Happy-Go-Lucky is available to pre-order via our Mike Leigh UK store.

Mike Leigh biography part 1: Ealry years to 1977 (Mike Leigh bio part 2, Mike Leigh bio part 3)

Mike Leigh was born on 20th February 1943 in Salford, Manchester, England. Moving down to London in 1960 with the vowed intent of becoming an actor, by 1965 he had studied at RADA, Camberwell Art School, The Central School of Art and Design and The London International Film School and in between times had been an assistant stage manager at theatre, and acted bit parts in both film and television. For the rest of 1960's Mike Leigh would move away from acting and the "legitimate" theatre into the theatre workshops which would allow him to develop his method "writing" plays and then directing them. Mike Leigh's method of writing that was developing during this period (that he has continued with ever since throughout his career) is to bring together a group of actors, and to allow them to improvise around the smallest guidance from him. Based on these improvisations Leigh would bring together the bits that worked and start working them into a script, continually returning to improvisations in a way as organically as is possible in order to work up the developing script, until such time as the script is finished.

In 1971 Mike Leigh got to make his first film Bleak Moments. The film was based on the stage play of the same name that he had made during 1970 with that stage cast returning for the movie with an extended cast. The film surrounds Sylvia, a lonely unfulfilled young woman who cares for her "retarded" sister and hopes for some olive branch to a better life. Sylvia's work colleagues and potential suitors unfortunately are unable to offer any escape route and are more confined (emotionally) than Anne is herself. Although Bleak Moments was a critical success praised for its freshness and innovation and particularly complimented Leigh's ability to portray and maintain the stultifying awkwardness of the characters throughout the whole duration of the film, unsurprisingly perhaps, the film went virtually un-noticed by the movie going public. Mike Leigh continued directing his improvisational inspired stories in the theatre.

In 1973 he was given the chance to make a film for BBC Television's hugely influential Play for Today series and this turned out to be Hard Labour. The TV film focuses on the life of Mrs Thornley, a cleaner for an upper middle class lady, Mrs Stone. We see Mrs Thornley's daily drudgery and her relationships with her cold and demanding husband, her unmarried daughter and her son and his social climbing wife. Hard Labour would feature future Mike Leigh favourites Liz Smith (as the tired put upon Mrs Thornley) and Alison Steadman (as the social climbing wife). Mike Leigh married Alison Steadman later in 1973.

More work with the BBC Television followed initially a series of Five Minute Films. By the end of 1975 five of the shorts had been completed, but were not screened at the time and the idea was abandoned, (they were not screened until 1982 - which is a shame as they were very good). Further BBC television worked followed this time in the Second City Firsts strand followed in 1975 with The Permissive Society. This was a studio based thirty minute play set on a Friday night in a high rise flat in Lancashire where we view Bob and his recently acquired girlfriend tentatively struggling through the awkwardness of their first relationship, with Bob's sister, freshly returned from her prematurely ended night out (after being stood up) hovering around trying to make herself busy. A second piece in the same strand called Knock for Knock was screened in 1976, the piece about an insurance salesman doing his best not to sell insurance to a gentleman wishing to buy insurance from him. Knock for Knock received much praise from TV critics at the time. Unfortunately the idiots in the BBC decided to wipe the tape as part of a space saving exercise and no known copy exists (not even with Mike Leigh himself).

Also in 1976 Mike Leigh was commissioned for a further Play for Today and this commission turned into one of Leigh's most popular and enduring works and also the piece that would break him into the consciousness of the general public. Nuts in May saw Alison Steadman and Roger Sloman reprising their character roles of Keith and Canidice-Marie Pratt from Leigh's 1973 theatre piece Wholesome Glory. Nuts in May shows the Pratts on a dull (they way they like it) camping holiday in Dorset, to a back drop of a bracing English summer (i.e. wet, windy and let's face it, miserable). We find Keith eagerly pawing over OS maps, measuring the daily rainfall, and carefully chewing various foodstuffs the exact amount of times optimal to aid digestion. Candice-Marie, a timid creature, wetly follows his lead. Unfortunately their holiday gets ruined when various campsite users commit such heinous crimes as playing a transistor radio, and attempting to light a camp fire and, as a "reasonable" citizen, Keith tackles them on their duty to follow the "Country Code". Nuts in May is a tremendously amusing piece of work from start to finish, and allowed Leigh to show his versatility in being able to turn his hand from the dirge and chest tightening reserve of Bleak Moments to the light-hearted humour of Nuts In May.

1977 saw the next in his series of films for the Play for Today series. The Kiss of Death centres around the character of Trevor, a shy and nervous undertaker's assistant. We follow Trevor's progress at work, and out at the disco with his self-assured mate Ronnie. They then form a foursome with the quiet Sandra and the predatory Linda, unfortunately gets paired with Linda who frustrated by Trevor being so behind when coming forward, she becomes more and more predatory leaving Trevor emasculated and nervously giggling.

1977 also saw the now legendary Abigail's Party brought to the small screen. Abigail's Party was a huge hit when shown on TV but had it not been for some rather convoluted pieces of luck, the play may have never even been written, let alone recorded for TV and a piece of TV history would never have seen the light of day. Whilst preparing for his next BBC TV project, Leigh was asked by The Hamsptead Theatre whether he could put together a play for the theatre at short notice as one of the plays in its schedule had been cancelled. With the help of his wife Alison Steadman (who would play the lead character Beverley), Leigh "rushed" together a cast and out of this came the play. Abigail's Party was a theatrical roaring success (especially considering its production was confined to a provincial theatre) but any hopes of transferring it to the West End in the future were dashed when Alison Steadman become pregnant. That might have been the end of the story until The BBC became short of a play when a controversial play of theirs about Northern Ireland had to be cancelled for legal reasons. Due to the time constraints Mike Leigh was persuaded at short notice to perform the play in the hastily arranged set in a TV recording studio. The action all takes place at the home of Beverley (a pleased with herself, house proud, social climbing monster) and her husband Laurence (an estate agent with only a passing interest in his "showy" wife). Beverley has invited over the two new neighbours Angela (a plain and girlish nurse) and her husband Tony (a rather sullen ex-footballer turned computer operator) and Sue (the mouseish divorcee mother of the unseen Abigail) who has reluctantly agreed to go to Beverley's to allow 15 year old Abigail to have her party without her hanging around all the time. As the evening progresses Beverley plays the hostess role to full showing off her house and contents at every opportunity and dishing out "well meaning" advice to Sue and viscous barbs to her husband Laurence. Buoyed by drink and mutual loathing the evening sprints towards its final crescendo. Abigail's Party was a huge hit in television earning Alison Steadman an Evening Standard Award for Best Actress.

The Mike Leigh story continues in Mike Leigh Biography Part 2